A Whole New Look At Mincemeat Pie

Mincemeat pie was originally made to use left over meat or pieces of the meat that were not as desirable and the sugar helped the meat not spoil. 

Around World War II mincemeat pies slowly had the meat phased out of them as rationing became a standard. Most people today think of mincemeat (although meatless) almost as a dessert and some people do eat it for a dessert! But the idea of this recipe is to add fruit to the meat with the dessert spices of modern Western culture: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc... This recipe uses some of those spices but it is definitly a dinner pie.

Back in the day the meat was beef, suet (hard fat around the kidneys and loins of beef and lamb), or anything they could get. As usual I decided to make this without a trip to the store and I looked in the fridge and there was a pork steak. There were also A LOT of cranberries in my freezer and thus was born this new mincemeat pie.

I used a 1 lb pork steak but really any meat you want could be substituted.

Boil:

1 lb pork steak

1 cup chicken stock

6 0z fresh cranberries (1/2 bag usually)

Soft boil until the meat is cooked enough to take it out and mince it. Return the meat to the pot and add:

1 cup apple cranberry juice

pinch lemon zest

1/4 cup candied ginger, finely chopped

3/4 cup raisins

1/4 tsp powedered ginger

1 tsp garam marsala spice

1/2 cup sugar

Bring to a hard boil and then back down to medium high heat for about 15 minutes. The cranberries should burst. Then dissolve:

2 tsp potato or corn starch

2 tbsp water

Then add that mixture to the pot and stir in while it thickens. It should thicken a lot at this point and no longer be runny, more like a gel. Turn off heat and let cool. Heat oven to 475 degrees. While cooling combine:

1/2 cup butter, COLD (preferably just out of the refridgerator)

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

Mix ingredients until uniform in texture and crumbly, then add  1/4 cup milk. Split into two halves and roll each out on a floured surface to the diameter of your pie pan. Line the pie dish with one half of the crust and add the cooled (or mostly cooled) cranberry-meat mixture. Then place the other half of the crust mixture on top and make some slits to let out steam. You can make designs by reserving a little bit of the crust mixture and using cookie cutters or a knife to freehand designs. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is a golden brown. 

This recipe would probably also be a good autumn dish with turkey or chicken breast meat. It's also very easy to change this recipe to include different dried fruits or different fresh ones to give it a whole new theme. For instance apples are usually part of a mincemeat recipe and they would even be good in this recipe, feel free to play around!

Tati's Hot n' Sour Soup

This came about because I had some excess vegetables on hand and wanted a soup with a little kick for dinner.

1 lb mild Italian pork sausage (either uncased or cased sausage chopped once cooked)

32 oz chicken broth

8 Brussels sprouts, shredded

1/4 cup green onions, chopped

1/4 cup whole kernel corn (frozen, canned, or fresh)

1 tbsp ketchup

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp olive oil

2 tbsp fish sauce (with or without chili)

1 whole dried cayenne pepper

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 parsnip, sliced

In a large sauce pan, brown pork in sesame and olive oil. In the same pan add all the other ingredients. Cook until pork is done and parsnips are tender enough to eat. Usually about 20 minutes over medium heat. Add salt at the end to taste.

Cranberry Sauce

Tired of the canned cranberry sauce? Or just want to add some easy zing to the Thanksgiving table? Look no more! This fruity sauce with a ginger kick does the job.

Add to saucepan:

1 cup red wine 

1 tbsp orange zest

1/4 cup candied ginger

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp grated ginger

12 oz (1bag) fresh cranberries

1/2 cup raspberries (optional - or any fruit of your choosing)

Cook over low heat, simmering for about 20 minutes or more, depending on how much alcohol you want to boil out. Taste after 20 minutes and if it's too strong, keep simmering. It's done when the berries burst and the sauce thickens.

Bavarian Pretzels

This is my FAVORITE pretzel recipe! It's incredibly simple to make and has very few ingredients. The pretzels have a delicious bready flavor that's perfectly complemented by coarse sea salt (and a cold beer). My cousin Brandon found this recipe online and I made it a few times and tweaked it for the better I think.

combine:

1 package active dry yeast (2 tsp)

2 tbsp warm water

a little pinch of sugar

The goal here is to breed the yeast. Warm but NOT HOT water helps it breed and the sugar is a food source. Hot water will kill the yeast. Stir together and let sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy.

Then add:

4 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/3 cups water (preferably room temperature or a little warmer, again to promote yeast growth)

Mix together and then knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Knead with your hands! Do not just stir or the dough will stay sticky. It needs to be kneaded thoroughly to achieve the smooth pretzzely texture of goodness.

Heat oven to 475 degrees. Measure enough water into a pan to be 3 inches deep.  Add 2 tsp of baking soda for every 4 cups of water. Simmer soda and water mixture while shaping the dough and make sure that the soda is completely dissolved.

Yes, pretzels are usually pretzel shaped, but I find they look much nicer and cook more evenly when formed into a bagel shape. So begin to form the dough into whatever shape you please by taking a piece and rolling it into a string. I generally do about a 6 inch long and 3/4 inch thick string, but most any size will do as long as they're all the same size.

 Lay pretzels out on a lightly floured surface to rise for a few minutes. Bring soda water mixture to a boil and put as many pretzels in as will fit comfortably. This is what gives the pretzels their harder outer coating. The pretzel will sink at first and after a while will begin floating - this means its time to take out! Poke a pretzel if it's been at the bottom too long as it might be stuck.

Place pretzels on a GREASED baking sheet and salt the tops. If you like very salty pretzels, place them on a greased and salted baking sheet. For best results use coarsely ground sea salt and it'll be just like professional pretzels.

Bake until the pretzels are golden brown. A light golden brown if you like them chewy and a darker color if you don't. This is usually between 8 and 15 minutes, depending on how thick the pretzels are. 

This dough would also make a delicious pizza crust, or pizza bagels. Also, it can be spiced up with things like ground herbs or garlic salt.

Pork and Pineapple Casserole

I stumbled upon this by not having the right ingredients for another casserole I was trying to make but this turned out quite good. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

2 Half pound pork chops

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 16oz can of crushed pineapple, drained

2 1/2 cups bread cubes (I used hard crust francesi)

1 egg

1/2 fennel bulb, chopped (celery, if you prefer, about 3/4 cups)

2 tbsp butter, melted

1/2 tsp salt

chicken broth as needed for moisture

Brown the chops in some oil and set inside casserole dish.

Mix the sugar and pineapples and spread on top of the pork chops.

Then mix the bread, egg, fennel, butter, salt and broth to form a stuffing consistency. The bread should be wet and maleable and the egg should bind it all together. If the mixture becomes runny or soggy, there is too much liquid. If that happens, add a little more bread to compensate. 

Add this mixture to the dish and bake, uncovered, for about an hour or until the pork is done. 

To check the pork without extracting one of the pork chops use a thermometer and make sure that, for pork chops, it reads at least 160 degrees fahrenheit.

Sevres 2.

Also, the original recipe called for pork loin, but I had pork chops on hand, so it would probably be good with either.

Chow Mein

For years I've tried to replicate the flavor of chinese sauces but to no avail! At last I've found that the secret ingredient seems to be Oyster Sauce. I found a recipe online and made a few changes - delicious! I cooked it once with some crispy egg noodles from King Chwan on Ocean Street. This time I bought fresh egg noodles from an asian market in San Francisco (DELICIOUS!). If you have your own egg noodles the way to make them crispy is to cook them and then fry them in a (preferably) cast iron pan with a little oil (peanut and/or sesame oil give it a nice asian flavor).

Dissolve:

1 tbsp cornstarch (I used potato starch)

in

4 tbsp water

 

Then whisk in:

1/4 cup chicken broth or water (I used chicken broth)

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp fish sauce with chili (optional)

salt and pepper to taste 

Add to whatever you put it on while still in the pan so that the sauce can soak into the dish at a high temperature. Also, if you want to make a stir fry with this sauce, try marinating the meat or tofu in:

1 tbsp oytser sauce

1 tsp soy sauce (or more, as desired)

And enough broth to cover the food (the broth from rehydrating mushrooms, especially shiitakes, works very well)

I went a little crazy at the asian market and I also bought black fungus, cuttle fish, and shiitake mushrooms for the chow mein. The black fungus was a tasty cross between a broccoli type vegetable and a mushroom and it went great with the dish.

French Pancakes

I found this recipe in a cookbook from 1903. These 'pancakes' are a cross between crepes and the fluffy American pancakes. They have a delicate egg flavor and are fairly thin. Delicious with jam or syrup!

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

Sift together the dry ingredients and then beat in the eggs with the milk. Make sure there are no lumps. Put some oil/butter in a frying pan and pour pancakes in desired size. 

Very simple really! This amount fed three pancake lovers.